The LIGHT OF HOME - Hardcover

Binstock

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689121563 ISBN 13: 9780689121562

Publisher: Scribner, 1992

Synopsis

A debut collection of stories reveals the inner lives, the longings, the dreams, and the sorrows of a diverse and complicated group of characters

About this title

About the Author

R.C. Binstock's new novel, Swift River, will be published in November, 2014.

Reviews

In nearly all of the 17 stories in this disappointing debut collection, Binstock portrays a recognizably similar figure: a man of uncertain age who is emotionally and socially adrift, suspended in a state of self-absorption akin to adolescence. Other characters are glimpsed only through the myopic haze in which the protagonist views them himself; for example, there's a recurring doctor-father who has failed his son in some crucial but never specified way. Often the hero displays a powerful, though baffling, effect on others: a string of independent, attractive women--including the lesbian in "Birdland" and the artist in "Detail of Rock and Stream"--at first intimidate, then, inexplicably, throw themselves at him, while for the title character of "Willie," superficial acquaintance with the narrator is enough to give him a nervous breakdown. Plot development is virtually nonexistent here. Instead, lengthy digressions, such as those about baseball in "Hall of Fame," flesh out confused, aimless narratives. The writing is vague and muddled, thick with stilted phrases like "Living with her is a burden of unwieldy emotion." Weighted by so much angst, the collection could have benefited from an ironic presentation; unfortunately, Binstock takes these characters as seriously as they take themselves.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A first collection of 17 stories that's very much a first collection: some top-drawer touching stories, told from both male and female perspectives, and some cluttered or sparse pieces--all mostly about loneliness and the distance between people. Mood is a priority here. In ``A Circular Shore,'' for instance, a narrator describes Rachel, five, deserted by her mother, in delicate pastel colors and finishes with an Ann Beattie- like summarizing image: ``We both move, weightless, in very small circles, like tandem moons around a star.'' Sometimes such a straining after emotional resonance comes off; at other times, it feels precious. Often, the difference depends upon the significance of the story's occasion: In ``To Be At Home,'' Binstock is moving because she manages to bring together a divorced couple on the occasion of the death of the ex-husband's mother. The man and woman must thus deal with their own feelings and also minister to the ex- husband's father in a situation where ``the world had changed overnight.'' In ``Birdland,'' a narrator alone in his wife's hometown visits a woman too much alone who was once, briefly, his wife's lover, and the possibility of a one-night stand with her forces him to define the limits of his life. But others, like ``Cheaters and Liars, Robbers and Fools,'' are too slight; the latter sketches a portrait of a divorced woman who ``feels that a shimmering curtain, rolled up to the sky, is about to descend....'' ``Willie,'' much too long, is about a narrator on a new job as a technical writer who is intrigued with Willie: office politics and slice-of-life stretch out for pages without illuminating anything. But ``Hall of Fame,'' a memoir about a father centered on baseball, retrieves meaning from a chaos of instances. Binstock has a deft touch at best--but is too interested in withholding vital information for the sake of a minimalist aesthetic. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0689121563
• ISBN 13: 9780689121562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176